Can there ever be economic equality in America?
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Robert Reich Guest blogger
A few days ago I had breakfast with a man who had been one of my mentors in college, who participated in the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s and has devoted much of the rest of his life in pursuit of equal opportunity for minorities, the poor, women, gays, immigrants 鈥� and also for average hard-working people who have been beaten down by the economy. Now in his mid-80s, he鈥檚 still active.聽
I asked him if he thought America would ever achieve true equality of opportunity.聽
鈥淣ot without a fight,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose who have wealth and power and privilege don鈥檛 want equal opportunity. It鈥檚 too threatening to them.They鈥檒l pretend equal opportunity already exists, and that anyone who doesn鈥檛 make it in America must be lazy or stupid or otherwise undeserving.鈥澛�
鈥淵ou鈥檝e been fighting for social justice for over half a century. Are you discouraged?鈥澛�
鈥淣ot at all!鈥� he said. 鈥淒on鈥檛 confuse the difficulty of attaining a goal with the urgency of fighting for it.鈥�
鈥淏ut have we really made progress? Inequality is widening. The middle class and the poor are in many ways worse off than they were decades ago.鈥�
鈥淵es, and they鈥檙e starting to understand that,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd beginning to see that the distinction between the middle class and poor is disappearing. Many who were in the middle have fallen into poverty; many more will do so.鈥�
鈥淎nd, so?鈥�
He smiled. 鈥淔or decades, those at the top have tried to convince the middle class that their economic enemies are minorities and the poor. But that old divide-and-conquer strategy is starting to fail. And as it fails, it will be possible to create a political coalition of the poor and the middle class. It will be a powerful coalition! Remember, demographics are shifting. Soon America will be a majority of minorities. And women are gaining more and more economic power.鈥�
鈥淏ut the 400 richest Americans are now wealthier than the bottom 150 million Americans put together 鈥� and have more political influence than ever.鈥�
鈥淛ust you wait,鈥� he laughed. 鈥淚 wish I had another fifty years in me.鈥�
